The Integrity of Things: Hardware Security for Industial IoT

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Presented at ISC2SecureSummit 2019 by

Jonathon Taylor

First, we’ll discuss research showing the migration of attacks from ransomware and destructive attacks to package software install (botnets) and crypto-mining software. Maintaining system integrity is the key to defending against this trend in resource constrained environments, and is done by protecting sensitive resources and applications, which are key to IoT operation in both home and industrial control environments.Secure boot is not enoughOf the low percentage of companies currently using the hardware security features in ARM products, even fewer take the step of moving to a TEE. We will discuss what secure bootloaders do protect, and why they are not effective for ongoing operation. Adding Limited Trusted Execution to Ensure Device IntegrityWe’ll focus the discussion on ARM Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) and differentiate them in cost and complexity from traditional x86 TEE that conference-goers may be more familiar with. We will also touch on how this tech is used in large budget operations (high end cell phones, cable set top boxes), and how it can be adapted for any size development program. We’ll show how recent advancements and open source project make using TEE obtainable for many organizations.What SecureZone applications can do for youIn this area, we’ll briefly explore the capabilities of a TEE environment, then deep dive on how using a subset of these capabilities can reduce development time, complexity, and hardware cost, all while providing a similar layer of security. Specifically, we’ll look at applications vs the entire OS, using TEE as a broker for key storage areas, protecting the cyber to physical world resources, and how to get the best bang for your buck by selectively applying trusted resources. Tying it all togetherFinally, we’ll bring the concepts of limited and reasonable use of TEE into more traditional device hardening concepts to show the multiplier of effective integration. We’ll make suggestions on which components of a system really need this critical behavior, and how to prioritize them with a minimalist design. Finally, we’ll supercharge TEE by tying it to unique device identity and make it the lowest gain system a hacker can target.